Maria Burnett

Maria Burnett is an Associate Director at Human Rights Watch and in charge of the organization’s work on East Africa, with expertise in Uganda, emerging human rights issues in Central Africa, and Somalia. She has worked with the organization since 2005, first as the Burundi researcher in the Bujumbura field office. Burnett has worked on a range of human rights issues, including child soldiers, torture and killings by intelligence and counterterrorism agents, abuses by the Lord's Resistance Army, and justice reform in Central and East Africa. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Burnett worked as an architect and journalist in Africa. Burnett holds a law degree from Yale Law School and a bachelor's in architecture from Princeton University. She speaks French.